The Power of the Motion Picture

In yesterday's post we looked at rigidity Vs illusionary mutable patterns. In the last few years creative minds from different fields including fashion and architecture have been studying the theme of mutability, coming up with transformative garments or buildings.

Digital media also helped us transforming static images into pictures in motion, opening new possibilities to professional photographers and amateurs as well.

Inspired by the new means of communication, in February the Saatchi Gallery teamed up with Google+ to launch the Motion Photography Prize.

Divided in different categories – Landscape, Lifestyle, Action, Night, People and Urban – the prize was open to photographers from all backgrounds and from all over the world (note: the Urban category is open until today). Google+ allows indeed to upload and easily animate a series of still photographs.

The prize will be judged by a panel including film director Baz Luhrmann, and artists Shezad Dawood and Cindy Sherman among others. Winners will have their works showcased in a special exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London launching on April 16th, with one overall winner getting the opportunity to go on a trip with a photographer or filmmaker of their choice. The exhibition will also be featured online on Saatchi Art.

The prize is an indirect way for Google+ (currently boasting 540 million users and with 1.5 billion photos being uploaded onto it every week) to celebrate its third anniversary in June this year, but also strengthens the power of innovative digital media.

This is not the first time Google and the Saatchi Gallery get together: a previous initiative organised by the same partners in 2012 to find the photography stars of the future received indeed nearly 20,000 entries from 148 countries.

It would actually be quite interesting to create in future an award entirely dedicated to children: it would be intriguing to see what they would photograph and if they would use animated images to celebrate their joy and happiness or also as a way to exorcise their fears and anxieties.